


Come what may

by mpoumpouka



Category: Captain America (Movies), Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: ALL THE ANGST, Angst, Break Up, Courtesan Tony, Do not copy on another site, Hurt Steve, Hurt Tony, Implied Terminal Illness, Inspired by Fanart, M/M, Moulin Rouge AU, Tony Stark Has A Heart, retired army captain/poet Steve
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-05
Updated: 2019-03-05
Packaged: 2019-11-12 13:15:27
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,050
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18011585
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mpoumpouka/pseuds/mpoumpouka
Summary: Tony had learned the hard way to keep his priorities in check. A courtesan cannot afford to love. He dealt in money and ambition, traded in moans and lust, sold his body for a promise that maybe, one day, he’d become something more.And look where love has gotten him, in the end.Heartbroken and dying.Love is for fools.





	Come what may

**Author's Note:**

> So... confession time. I haven't written anything for... lets say years. I love this fandom, and I absolutely love this pairing. This was inspired by this fanart I saw on tumblr.  
> Here's the link to it, check it out, it's amazing.  
> http://willidothefandango.tumblr.com/post/183242991582/hackedmotionsensors-this-part-of-the-movie-is
> 
> This is unbeta-ed, so please excuse my mistakes. I should also say that english isn't my first language.

 

Unsurprisingly, all Tony feels in this moment is fear. It’s almost blinding in its intensity, the fear he feels for Steve’s safety, for Steve’s __life.__  

 

 _Love is for fools, my boy,_ Jarvis had said years ago, when he had been there to tend to Tony’s broken pride and bruised skin after his night with a patron. Tony had learned the hard way to keep his priorities in check. A courtesan cannot afford love. He dealt in money and ambition, traded in moans and lust, sold his body for a promise that maybe, one day, he’d become something more.  

 

Perhaps his old friend was right, after all.

 

Because for all his dreams, all his plans for the future, all his hopes to become __more__ and all his silly inventions and the science that would have finally been made attainable to him, __this__ is where love has gotten him in the end.

 

Still a courtesan, but also heartbroken and dying. Though, frankly, he’s not giving a shit about that last part.

 

Not when Steve is here and in __danger__.

 

His heart, that damn traitorous heart of his is starting to beat too fast again, too erratically. He can’t do anything but pray it doesn’t fail him, pray he doesn’t end up dead right __there and then__ , in front of the audience, the Duke and, oh God _Steve _.__

__

_Steve go, you fool!_

__

He can feel Steve’s panting breath on his face, he’s so close to him. His love. Steve, who’s still violently -but welcome, always welcome-, grasping his arm. Tony knows he’d never regret Steve’s touch. It may be the last time he’s touching Tony. Tony will treasure it, no matter its intention, he’s fucked up like that. Howard, Obie and many others have seen to it long before Steve ever walked in his life.

 

Tony’s eyes, despite his rising panic cannot stop drinking in Steve and the sight that he makes. He looks wrecked, still so tall and proud but simultaneously half-mad with anger and anguish, and Tony wants to yell at him, kiss him, lick the tear tracks off his beloved face.

Seeing him again is both a gift and a curse. The threat to Steve’s life rings a constant warning bell in Tony’s mind, but there’s still a small, shameful part of him which rejoices at Steve’s presense, so close to him after all that’s been said and done, still __there__.

 

Then Steve shoves him, only once, but hard enough for Tony to fall clumsily on his hands and knees. The ache barely registers. Somewhere near him he hears gasps, a crowd shocked. Tony had almost forgotten they had an audience, that they were supposed to be in a play. This doesn’t feel real.

 

And then…

 

“This man is yours now,” Steve’s voice, rough - either from crying or shouting, Tony doesn’t know- cuts in him, deeper than any knife ever could. Steve’s adressing the crowd -the Duke, who’s sitting front row- and Tony wishes with all his might that this really was all just a play, a role Steve portrayed, that he didn’t mean it. But Tony has always been a realist. And he’s too close to the end now to be fooling himself with silly wishfull thinking.

 

All Steve knows is that he has been horribly betrayed by the man he loved for the sake of money.

 

This wasn’t part of the play, their show. This was Steve denouncing him, just like Tony did, the night before, at the balcony. Never had the intent behind one same action been more different. Where Tony was lying to protect him, Steve is striking out in a fit of anger, wanting to hurt Tony as much as he has hurt __him__.

 

He blinks when crumbled pieces of paper hit his face. Money, he notes, numbly. Though there was no real force behind it,  he still ends up reeling as if he’d been slapped.

 

“I’ve paid my whore,” Steve spits, still not turning to face him and now it’s poison that runs through Tony’s veins , not blood.

 

What a show they're putting on.

 

Considering the life he has led so far, Tony thought he's learned all there was about agony and pain. But nothing could have ever prepared him for this. To hear those degrading words, that title Tony has longed to leave behind for all his adult life, coming out of the mouth that not that long ago was vowing eternal love to him between sweet, stolen kisses… This was a special kind of hell, one made just for Tony Stark.  

 

_You must be strong. For him, you must _._ _

 

Steve turns to Tony again. His fists are clentched, nose flaring and his eyes, God… he looks so accusing, so __betrayed__. Honestly, how damaged was Tony, to have turned his wide eyed, open-hearted beautiful captain into _this_?

 

The image of Steve that first night, flushed from wine and standing shyly in Tony’s quarters, reciting slowly but passionately words written just for him, comes to Tony unwittingly. He remembers it all at once, all their stolen moments. The curve of Steve’s powerful back when he lay sprawled in Tony’s bed, the concentrated frown on his face when inspiration stroke and he just __had__ to write something down, his lashes fluttering as he spilled himself inside Tony.

 

With all his might Tony wishes he could close his eyes now and open them to see Steve’s smile, one last time.  

 

_Everything I touch ends up destroyed. I am cursed._

 

But when Steve finally turns to him he is far from smiling.

 

“I owe you nothing”, he says to Tony, his voice low now, almost intimate, still broken beyond repair. “And you are nothing to me. Thank you for curing me of my __ridiculous__ obsession with love.”

 

At that, Tony’s strenght -his last bit of it- leaves him. He’s crying openly now, on his hands and knees at the center of the stage, surrounded by the rest of the actors and musicians. He knows he must present quite the spectacle, but he doesn’t care. Nothing matters anymore, only Steve, his safety.

 

The silence is deafening.

 

And then Steve walks away, down the steps and off the stage, towards the Duke, leaving Tony to stare at his retreating back, regret and acceptance battling inside his tired, broken heart.

**Author's Note:**

> So, what did you think? I think I'd like to write one or two more chapters of this, though I'm not sure I'll find the time or motivation... Anyway, I hope you enjoyed my first foray into the fandom. Tell me if you want me to write more!


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